In the manufacture of a dry cell, it is desirable to provide the cell with a sufficient amount of electrolyte so that maximum mix depolarizing efficiency can be maintained during the life of the cell. During the manufacture of many types of dry cells, the depolarizing mix is usually stamped into a so-called bobbin (ordinarily with a carbon cathode current collector rod in the center thereof) or the depolarizer mix is fed by a ram or extruded into paperlined cells. Although the cell's electrolyte can be uniformly mixed with the depolarizer to form a mix, too much electrolyte in the latter type cells would render the mix unhandlable during its assembly into paper-lined cells. Thus in order to maintain maximum handling characteristics and productive capacity, the mix is generally kept relatively dry and, therefore, not suitable for best performance in the cells. It, therefore, is frequently desired to add additional water or electrolyte to the mix after it is assembled in the cells. This has previously been done by using an absorbent washer impregnated with water or electrolyte on the top of the depolarizer mix or by just adding water or electrolyte without the aid of a washer on top of or adjacent the mix. A disadvantage of the impregnated washer is that it requires an additional component within the cell and that it retains some of the water and/or electrolyte.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,255,049 discloses the use of a gelatinous solution on top of the depolarizer mix of a dry cell in which the gelatinous solution contains water and/or electrolyte so that after a few hours, the water and/or electrolyte in the solution will penetrate into the depolarizer mix while leaving a binder near the top.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a dry cell with a depolarizer mix cake having an increased quantity of electrolyte distributed throughout the mix cake so as to insure good shelf and service life for the cell.
Another object of the present invention is to improve the discharge efficiency of dry cells.
The foregoing and additional objects will become more fully apparent from the following description and the accompanying drawings.